Background history:

'Miss Jessie' is a dormant diploid introduced in 1956 by Hardy.

It has earned the following AHS awards:
Honorable Mention: 1958

This plant can be found in our Plant Database at:
Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Miss Jessie') .

Please join in, if you own this plant! We would love to know more! I award an acorn for performance information posted to this thread.



Also, please consider adding a Plant Performance Report to the database! Thank you!

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Miss Jessie')

I love Miss Jessie. She has always bloomed profusely even during a summer long drought. She has multiplied very nicely in the 4 years it has been in my garden. We have full sun and no windbreak where she is planted and she seems to thrive there. A very nice plant.

Miss Jessie was the beginning of my hybridizing efforts back in the early 90s, She is the pod parent to Lillian's Sweet Thang, and grandparent to my near whites, Lillian's Thin ice, Lillian's White Lies, and Lillian's Vapor Trail. A dormant that does great in the south.

I just got a start Miss Jessie last year after admiring it in a club members garden. So it has not bloomed for me yet and I was afraid that the start I got may not make it. But I am really excited to see it in bloom. Great to see that MJ was a successful parent!

I don't expect any acorns, Becky... maybe by the end of summer I will have a worthy comment to add about MJ's performance

I have had Miss Jessie for many years, in the difficult Island bed. Despite full sun all day, no additional food or water and lots of weed competition, she always puts on a nice show.

Miss Jessie came to me years ago from my Mother's garden but languished in a shady, out of sight garden bed where she bloomed very sparsely and wasn't appreciated. Recently I realized how beautiful she really was and gave her a place of prominence in a sunny bed by my front sidewalk. She has exploded in growth and this year has many scapes just coming into bloom; she is the centerpiece to the daylilies in that bed. I really appreciate her now! And, she was introduced the year of my birth so that makes her all the more special to me!

Miss Jessie is having a good year. She is right on the edge of space that I cleared for new daylilies ( her next door neighbor is Rich and Handsome, how lucky for her!)

Miss Jessie is responding well to the ample water and less weed competition. She has been blooming since July 2nd, which is 19 days ago. Good girl!

2022 update… In September 2021 I completely cleaned out the Island Bed, throwing away many fans marked as Fulva or Kwanso and weeding all of the garbage out. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Miss Jessie this summer. Was she weeded out by accident? Was she removed to Back Bed and gathering her energy? Only time will tell.

I first saw Miss Jessie in person in 2015 at a friends garden and then finally got a start in 2017. A great bicolor, but some scapes struggle to hold up the blooms.

6/17/2018 - kind of showing the branching.


6/23/2019 - I just love the blooms on MJ. This was after a shower and it looks so fresh.


Same picture showing the height and branching.


7/08/2020 - evening picture showing some fading of MJ. It had reached its full height of 40 inches by now and some scapes are leaning. Also in this picture is Small World Wiggle Wiggle (purple) and to the far right is Lemon Lime Swirl (yellow).


6/28/2021 - clump shot. MJ blooms between mid-June and mid-July in my zone 6b garden.